We recently sat down with Franklin Fitch to talk about his journey. A must read for anyone wanting to get started as a NFT artist.
1) Most of our readers will know you for your love of NFT’s and digital artwork. Can you tell us how you got involved in this side of the blockchain industry?
I was previously working at a crypto exchange, so have been a full time crypto professional for about four years now in total, most of that not being NFTs. I was looking to move on from the exchange world, had just gotten burnt out on it. I had experience with Blockparty in the past from some work i had done with them and some events we had thrown. I called up Shiv and Vlad the leaders of Blockparty and asked them what was up. They told me they had been secretly building a digital art (NFT) platform and I told them i wanted in!
I’ve loved art my whole life. Been going to museums very actively and appreciating art since i was young. So this was a chance to combine my love of art with my love of crypto technology.
2) For people not familiar with NFT and Digital Art Pieces specifically, can you give a short breakdown of what these are?
Sure. So digital art is just art that is digitally native. This art ranges from your standard .png or .jpeg art files to .glb and .mov 3D render files. Simply put, it’s not physical in the same way that a painting on a canvas is. However, you can put digital art in digital art frames and still hang it on your wall.
NFTs are a means to legitimize digital art. Most who read this are likely familiar with the double spending problem. This is the problem bitcoin solved for with internet (digital) money. The proof of work mechanism prevented the same digital money from being spent twice.
It’s conceptually similar with NFTs. The entire point of NFTs is to prevent art from being ‘spent twice’, so to speak.
An NFT is a non-fungible token, which has the art files, or other files, attached to it. This token then provides a record of authenticity and ownership for digital items. So now, we can effectively trade digital art and other digital goods via NFTs, without worrying about whether they are copies or otherwise inauthentic.
3) What do you find most appealing about Digital Art in particular?
I think it’s got a ton of versatility. Being digitally native you can do so much with digital tools that you can’t do in the physical world. I still love physical art, but I look at some of the generative work and 3D work coming out, and how much easier and cheaper it is to produce art digitally, and i really like that.
If you think about it, cost of materials is a big barrier to entry in art. Frames, canvas, paints, brushes. These can all be quite expensive when you add them up. By contrast, you can use free programs and a basic laptop to produce endless amounts of incredible digital art.
I also like that i can buy one digital art frame and display a thousand different pieces in it. That’s amazing versatility only the digital art world provides.
Finally, I love how this movement is putting power in the hands of the artists. Digital art galleries take less fees, have lower barriers to entry, and allow artists to monetize the secondary market. That makes digital art via NFTs far more equitable than legacy art.
4) You recently started creating your own Art pieces, tell us about this, the processes involved and what skills you learnt?
I did yeah, you can follow me on Twitter or SuperRare to see more of my art.
https://twitter.com/cryptofitch
https://superrare.co/cryptofitch
I asked around to some of my artist friends about what is the best way to get started making my own art. One of the common answers was to buy an ipad, an apple pencil, and purchase the app called Procreate. So that’s what I did.
The app is very intuitive to use and allows you to draw, using hundreds of different effects and thousands of different color combos. It also has more advanced tools to manipulate pieces once you’ve drawn them, and even some basic animation functionality.
As soon as i got the ipad, pen, and app i sat down and made my first piece. I had been envisioning it for quite some time. It was based on my favorite poem. I spent about 8 hours drawing it and refining it, then another 8 or so promoting the sale. I was lucky enough to have this piece sell for 3.3 ETH!
I think the main thing I’ve learned so far is you don’t need to overdo it. And you don’t even need a plan when you go to draw or make a piece. Just do it, try things. Allow yourself to be creatively free. Sometimes i will put on music and just go wherever my mind takes me. Give that a try, it works. And to the point about overdoing it, you’ll often be tempted to over edit or over embellish your pieces, when you would have been better to leave them more simple.
Simplicity is the key to everything. Don’t forget that. That doesn’t mean something basic or low effort, it means something pure conceptually and not overdone visually.
5) If anyone reading this wants to become an NFT artist, what tips can you give them to get started?
Just do it. No joke. The tools are there to make it super simple for you to do.
- Study your favorite artists, think about what style you want your style to be. What you want it to look and feel like. What colors you enjoy.
- Download photoshop, or whatever program you like. I *highly* recommend starting with the ipad, pen, and procreate. I personally use the new ipad air with the gen 2 pencil. Works like a charm.
- Study. Watch videos. I watched about a dozen hours of videos before my tools even arrived. This helped me to hit the ground running when i started.
- Attack the canvas. Just dial in and make a bunch of stuff the first week you have the tools. Focus completely on making art, specifically on trying new tools and approaches. This is your time to experiment.
- Find the piece you like the most after you’ve spent at least a week making art, ideally spend a few weeks or even a month. That’s what i did.
- Get connected to the art community. They’re mostly on twitter, telegram, and discord. Use hashtags and other means to find the core art and collector community.
- Register on open markets like OpenSea or Rarible and mint your art.
- Tell the story of your art via blogs, social posts etc.
- Secure your first sale
- Do it all over again.
6) Aside from Digital Art what other sectors of the NFT industry are you interested in?
I’m quite interested in wearables and avatars in the metaverse. Things like Decentraland wearables and Avastars.
I’m really interested in generative art, which is still digital art, but unique and worth mentioning.
I’m also really interested in collectibles, particularly sports collectibles like NBA top shot.
Finally, interested in digital land parcels. Like those in Decentraland or The Sandbox.
7) What projects excite you the most and why?
Probably most excited by Artblocks right now.
What they’re doing with generative art is really amazing. I buy every release they have now. Also really excited by Async which is doing some amazing programmatic stuff. Finally Illust space who are doing cool things with NFTs and AR.
8) Moving back onto the NFT industry as a whole, where do you see the biggest areas for growth over the next 12 months?
I think the secondary market is the thing that will mature the most. Primary market sales numbers and volumes will continue to grow significantly. But i think most of the growth by percentage gain will occur in the secondary market. So the technology must advance on the platforms over that time.
I also think interoperability is going to be huge. In two ways. Both in terms of the platforms being more interoperable (like an NFT minted on SuperRare being able to be sold on Blockparty) AND in terms of the chains being interoperable. Like being able to move seamlessly between using WAX and FLOW and Ethereum with the same NFT asset.
That’s where things start to get really interesting.
A big thank you to Franklin for giving his insights. You can follow him and check out his art portfolio below.
Links
Twitter: Franklin Fitch
Art Portfolio: Franklin Fitch